This combination bike and scooter is nominally the work of fancypants designer Philippe Starck, but that’s partly because “everyone in Bordeaux, France” doesn’t have as much label cachet. (More than “everyone in Normal, Illinois” or something, but still.) Before Starck got his hands on the brief for the bike, which will be part of Bordeaux’s bikeshare system, the city government solicited comments from more than 300 citizens on how their ideal bike would look and function.

The result is a bike you can pedal or scoot like a scooter; a press release from the city of Bordeaux says this is because of the need for an easy transition between biking and walking, presumably when moving from roads to pedestrian areas.

Since this is part of a public transportation push, it makes perfect sense to use crowdsourcing to help navigate the bike's design.

We should think about making similar efforts with public transportation and urban design here in the states. Certainly I think people want more density, more walkability, and more non-car forms of transportation - like scooter-bikes and bike-sharing.

Cities could go beyond town hall meetings and actually crowdsource city planning ideas to the public.

Peugeot will manufacture the bike, and hopes to have 3,000 on the streets for the Bordeaux bike-sharing program.